Buying carded figures on ebay - observations

[edd_jedi]

It's been exactly 3 years since I last bought a carded figure on ebay, back then I'd be scouring it for probably several hours per day So today I decided to have a look, using my old search techniques, and noticed a lot of changes.

1) Nearly all items seem to be buy-it-now rather than auctions
2) BIN prices seem way higher than what I was paying for stuff 3+ years ago
3) There's not nearly as many figures on there, I remember there rarely being less than 300 unique carded figures at any one time
4) Keywor4d searching returns loads of junk - I used to pretty much just search "moc tri logo" and that would give me everything I might be interested in

So it seems to me prices have gone up (stupidly in some cases - any AFA graded Luke was like £300+), quantity has gone down, and the categories have been flooded with crap (eg POTF2 showing up in tri logo searches.) It seemed like hard work to find anything I'd be interested in

 

[plantman]

yep, ebay fees have driven up BIN prices, even i massively inflate my BIN with best offer just to counter the ebay fees.

Now people use ebay to advertise the figure, but then make a sale off ebay which is what a lot of us do.

ebay is full tot he brim of junk, but you do find the odd bargain heer and there

 

[saber]

By the sounds of it and going off what some fellow collectors have noticed, Star Wars collecting has maybe increased in those 3 years :shock:

Resulting in some out there just trying to gain, by placing ridiculous prices on items :twisted:

 

[Paul-itoy]

It could be too, that people just aren't willing to gamble with auctions anymore. Sell with a BIN you are happy with rather than chance losing money on the auction route.
I think Ebay is a buyers market at the moment if you are patient with your wants.

 

[Bollux]

I know somebody about to start selling some moc!

 

[weasel]

As Andy says, the change in Ebay fees (they are now even more exhorbitant) means it's now in a sellers best interests to sell BIN/BO rather than to run an auction. Plus the change in policies/feedback and forcing people to take PP has meant a lot of people have left Ebay for good, and I don't blame them.
The drop in quantity may well be partly due to the whole U grade fad as well.

 

[Bollux]

You can trust Uncle Bollux he won't over-charge!

 

[tiefighterboy]

You can trust Uncle Bollux he won't over-charge!

Did you buy that laser lightsaber off the guy posting on here???